Daily Times

Sir: Pakistan is at cross roads in respect of its relations with its neighboring countries India and Afghanistan. Though Pakistan is always aspirant of normalising ties with both countries as it is not only in favour of Pakistan but essential for regional peace. Whenever an incident of terrorism takes place in their country, they put whole blame on Pakistan ignoring the fact that Pakistan has also been a victim of terrorism for the last two decades.

The only benefit of this blame game is taken by their common enemy- terrorists. Same was the message conveyed by COAS, General Qamar Javed Bajwa in his telephonic conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the wake of terrorist attack in Afghanistan. The suggestion of COAS for robust border management and intelligence cooperation to halt the process of cross border movement of terrorists is apt and an emergent requirement.

If we look into recent past, Pak-Afghan relations augured well in 2014 but due to civil war in Afghanistan, blame game by Afghanistan started that Pakistan is involved in aggravating unrest in Afghanistan. Pakistan offered an olive branch by hosting Heart of Asia Conference in 2015 and some other steps are also being taken on part of government of Pakistan.

Like, border management to avoid spillover of smuggling and repatriation of Afghan refugees and as per data available, about 4 to 4.5 million refugees have been repatriated. The bilateral issues can only be resolved if Afghan Government is also serious and cooperative in resolving the mutual problems amicably instead of attributing all wrongs to Pakistan.

NAZIA JABEEN

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